The 2023-2024 Frith Prize is awarded to Katerina Darby and Hannah Lou Malena-Morin
The Cultural Studies Department is pleased to announce that the winners of the 2023-2024 Gregory R. Frith Memorial Prize are Katerina Darby and Hannah Lou Malena-Morin. The two students will jointly hold this year's award, which honours student artists for their achievements in Cultural Studies workshop courses.
Katerina Darby's winning piece, pisstake, is a subversion of the music video genre. It employs chance operations in documenting the behind-the-scenes work of composing a song, yet continually resists narrative resolution. Combining 16mm footage, a variety of playback speeds, and digital 'litter' superimposed throughout, the film draws on punk and situationist thought to challenge the commodification of music.
Hannah Lou Malena-Morin's winning submission, entitled Living Collage, is a multimedia project. It is composed of several collage elements marked by the absence or singular presence of an eye, as well as a stop motion film that combines them in an evolving set of visual patterns. By denaturalizing the photographic gaze and highlighting the role of negative space across the composition, the artist takes a minimalist but effective approach to playing with resolutions and interruptions in form and viewer engagement.
The Frith Award committee further extends its congratulations to Jinian Harwig, a two-time prior recipient of the Frith Prize. This year Jinian received an honorable mention for her piece Light Body, a video loop that reveals itself only on select LCD screens, and at particular angles, inviting reflections on the character of online privacy and the recuperative failures of digital media.
The Department offers sincere congratulations to Katerina, Hannah, and Jinian. More information on the Frith and Wernick Prizes, including a list of previous recipients, can be found on our Academic Prizes page.